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Topic: Available Queens? (Read 4077 times)

Whew! I've been calling around trying to find a queen for shipping and nobody seems to have anything available right now -- all queens are going into packages. Anyone know who has queens available for delivery?

We're beginning our flow now, I'm supposing -- the bees are bringing in lots of pollen, the forsythias and daffodils are in full bloom, and the fruit trees, maples and dandelions should start popping within the next week or so. I can always let the split raise its own queen, if need be. Not like I keep a good eye out for the marked queens anyhow. :)

I think you should just go with your original plan. Your geared up for it, just make it happen. If you don't like the queen they make, order a fall queen. Fall requeening is a common practice and gets your colony in great shape for winter. Also helps with spring swarms. You can feed back extracted honey, or the honey from caps to finish up your sections if necessary. See "Perfect Sections Every Time" on Dave Cushmans site. It's a great way to learn many different things about your bees and get more comfortable with them. If you enforce the dresscode.. NO CAMO!! you can find the queen. bahahahahahahahaha

Well, that's what I did -- the original plan. I found my marked queen, and once I located her, I knew where to look for new eggs, which I found plenty of. Of course, it took my reading glasses to see them So now I wait a few weeks, just watching them, and see what develops. Thanks for the advice and tips.

So you went ahead with the whole scheme? Pulled most of the open brood and left the sealed brood with the old colony? Cut them down and added the comb honey super? How do they look?? Plenty crowded and forced up?

Yes, done as described. Except for the capped brood, which I split evenly between the two, a couple frames each (didn't know better). The only uncapped brood I left behind was what was on the back of the frame with the eggs.

When I went in, the queen was in the upper box again, which surprised me. Both boxes were prety well populated, and so each seemed full when split. Hopefully full enough. After they got over their trauma, they resumed their regular activity, and were just as busy coming and going at the old hive as before. I'll see how it develops over the next few weeks; this is my most serious heavy-duty manipulation yet.